Mini-ITX build

cawill

cawill

cawill

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1 Jun 2007
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126
I'm looking to buy a new PC shortly and liked the idea of buying a BitFenix Prodigy Mini-ITX case.

What would be the best spec I could get for this case, a modular power supply, mini-ITX motherboard, RAM, CPU, DVD drive and a CPU cooler for a £400 budget?

I would like to add a single GPU later on, and have the possibility of overclocking in the future if possible.

Thanks.
 
Do you have anything you would re-use? HDD, ODD, PSU to try and keep the cost down?

mhsle8.jpg
 
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cawill said:
I have an old 400 watt psu that I could use? I have a SSD, HD and OS to use already.

I also have a 5450 if that helps.
Click to expand...

I'd prob replace the PSU if it's old, SSD is great and if you dont need the Grade B HDD I've spec'd, you can remove that. Keep in mind, the WD Black models are very good drives and at £50, you cannot go wrong.

5450 would be good to keep you going, but would recommend you upgrade to 7850 or 7950 if/when you can.
 
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snips86x said:
I'd prob replace the PSU if it's old, SSD is great and if you dont need the Grade B HDD I've spec'd, you can remove that. Bear in mind, the WD Black models are very good drives and at £50, you cannot go wrong.

5450 would be good to keep you going, but would recommend you upgrade to 7850 or 7950 if/when you can.
Click to expand...

Thank you for your spec, would it be worth removing the HD and getting a faster CPU?
 
Ideally you want this.......

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77N-WIFI Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard £98.99
1 x Silverstone Strider Plus 500W Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (SST-ST50F-P) £67.99
1 x BitFenix Prodigy Mini-ITX Cube Case - Arctic White £57.98
1 x Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (PV38G160C9K) £35.99
1 x LG GH24NS95 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
Total : £473.03 (includes shipping : £11.75).



So you need to save a little more cash. The non modular XFX 550W PSU would be fine for the case at £50 it would help bring the price down to around £450ish. If you were a bit more active on the forums you would lose the P&P once you hit 100 posts which would also help ;)
 
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It looks like it might be worth increasing my budget.

That spec looks good. I've noticed a lack of choice on the motherboard front, does anyone know if anymore mini itx motherboards are about to be released?
 
basically as a minimum you really want these at least.

You can leave things like CPU cooler, gpu till you can afford them the 3570K onboard gpu is good. Don't try overclocking on intel stock cpu cooler.

also with tht pssu it only makes 25db at 100% load so will be totally silent.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
1 x Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD 7850 OC Windforce 2X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £149.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77N-WIFI Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard £98.99
1 x BitFenix Prodigy Mini-ITX Cube Case - Arctic White £57.98
1 x Toshiba (7K1000.D) 1TB SATA 6GB/s 32MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA100) HDD £54.98
1 x BeQuiet Pure Power L7 530W '80 Plus' Power Supply £54.95
1 x TeamGroup Elite 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED38GM1600HC11DC01) £35.99
1 x Scythe Shuriken Rev.B Quiet Low Profile CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £27.98
1 x LG GH24NS95 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
Total : £678.84 (includes shipping : FREE).

 
honosuseri said:
Ideally you want this.......

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77N-WIFI Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard £98.99
1 x Silverstone Strider Plus 500W Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (SST-ST50F-P) £67.99
1 x BitFenix Prodigy Mini-ITX Cube Case - Arctic White £57.98
1 x Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (PV38G160C9K) £35.99
1 x LG GH24NS95 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
Total : £473.03 (includes shipping : £11.75).



So you need to save a little more cash. The non modular XFX 550W PSU would be fine for the case at £50 it would help bring the price down to around £450ish. If you were a bit more active on the forums you would lose the P&P once you hit 100 posts which would also help ;)
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That is what I would suggest as well. I would however add a CPU cooler to that...either:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-019-AL
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-035-AR&groupid=701&catid=2330&subcat=

The reason for not recommending the bigger tower cooler is because of the socket position might make the bigger cooler conflict with the graphic card in the future, and considering that Gigabyte board is voltage locked anyway, one of the two coolers above should do the job fine for overclock up to around 4.0-4.4GHz which is probably what the max overclock the board is capable of.
 
Marine-RX179 said:
That is what I would suggest as well. I would however add a CPU cooler to that...either:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-019-AL
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-035-AR&groupid=701&catid=2330&subcat=

The reason for not recommending the bigger tower cooler is because of the socket position might make the bigger cooler conflict with the graphic card in the future, and considering that Gigabyte board is voltage locked anyway, one of the two coolers above should do the job fine for overclock up to around 4.0-4.4GHz which is probably what the max overclock the board is capable of.
Click to expand...

True,

The Asus board doesn't have that problem (if the OP is intersted in adding a super-big cooler), a NH d14 fits no problem.

If you ever wanted to upgrade your cooling a closed loop lends itself well to the prodigy, as its a quite a spacious Mini ITX case.
 
Below is the build l have thrown together this morning as a media center, replacing a A10 -5800k + 6670 build.

Nice and quiet, cpu @ 60'c under prime95 with stock cooler, GPU at 51'c under load.

I had the following bits already:

MSI B75IA-E33.

2x Verbatim "Black Edition" Series 128GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive. (OS on one, games on other).

YOUR BASKET
1 x XFX Pro 550W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £49.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £41.99
1 x BitFenix Hydra Fan/LED Controller £24.98
Total : £127.46 (includes shipping : £8.75).




The bits below cover what l ordered this week.

**B Grade** OcUK GeForce GTX 560Ti 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **Supplied with FREE Batman: Arkham City PC game** £89.89 all in.
YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i3-3220 3.30GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £89.99
1 x BitFenix Prodigy Mini-ITX Cube Case - Midnight Black £64.99
1 x BitFenix Spectre 230mm Fan - Black £12.98
Total : £181.46 (includes shipping : £11.25).



Spare W7HP.

As a media center it is probably a little overpowered :) however at least l can play WoT on the 40" Samsung SmartTV when the wife and ikkle one alseep :)

Regards.

C.
 
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Doomedspeed said:
True,

The Asus board doesn't have that problem (if the OP is intersted in adding a super-big cooler), a NH d14 fits no problem.
Click to expand...
Yea...but unfortunately that Asus Deluxe-I board seem to be the only one with the socket positioned further away from the PCI-E slot...and the thing is as great a board as it is, it's biggest problem is still the high price tag...
 
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Thanks everyone for your help / responses.

Marine-RX179 said:
Yea...but unfortunately that Asus Deluxe-I board seem to be the only one with the socket positioned further away from the PCI-E slot...and the thing is as great a board as it is, it's biggest problem is still the high price tag...
Click to expand...

Yes I had considered that board but on a budget it didn't seem worth it.

honosuseri said:
If you were a bit more active on the forums you would lose the P&P once you hit 100 posts which would also help ;)
Click to expand...

I hope by the time I save a little more this will be the case.

passey89 said:
also with tht pssu it only makes 25db at 100% load so will be totally silent.
Click to expand...

Thanks, but I quite like the idea of a modular system on the small case as I thought cable management would be an issue. I will look to see if there is a modular version of this PSU.

CEUOTC said:
Below is the build l have thrown together this morning as a media center, replacing a A10 -5800k + 6670 build.
Click to expand...

Have you noticed a performance increase over the previous build?
 
cawill said:
Thanks everyone for your help / responses.

Have you noticed a performance increase over the previous build?
Click to expand...

Performace has increase by roughly double in 3DMark11.

A10 5800K + 6670 = 3DMark11 P2251

i3 3220 + GTX 560 Ti = 3Dmark11 P4568

System is cooler under load overall.

Very happy with the build, the BitFenix Prodigy was easy to work with, and the inclusion of the 230mm fan makes it silent.

The GPU is the audible when under load, however l won't be sitting that close to the TV to hear it.

The XFX psu is silent and the excess cables fit nicely in the PSU module.

Excellent cable management all round really, feels nice and sturdy, all SSD are on the rear side plate and l have removed the other drive bays for better airflow.

Played World of Tanks at 60+ fps @ 1920*1080@60hz. All settings at max except sniper eye candy and shadow.

Regards.

C.
 
Quick update for you, just flashed the MSI GTX560 ti to the latest bios, fan now never gets about 44% so now near silent :)

Under load temps now ~61'C
 
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